Tag Archives: Boxpark

Say hello to the Pashley Princess, a product bought largely by urban women who picture themselves in Supergas and some kind of floral tea dress, cruising down country lanes, a baguette and perhaps a small dog propped jauntily in the basket. What they don’t realise about this bike is that it is in fact fucking heavy and if they so much as approach a hill, they will be sweating like Pavarotti on a stairmaster. If there is any kind of stair in your flat/house, forget it.

So bye-bye, Pashley Princess, you are last week’s cycle crush. This week’s is…

Simplicity at its prettiest, if you ask me. It comes in a range of colours to make Farrow & Ball weep and, because the brand is fairly unknown, lacks the smug, nick-me aura of the Pashley. Although it will be stolen in about ten seconds, because it’s lovely.

I only came across these the other day at Tokyo Bike’s pop-up shop in Rivington Street. I’m sick of pop-up shops. They get your hopes up, kidding you that your area is getting interesting and then bugger off, leaving nowt but a desolate shop front. And now there’s a whole pop-up mall coming…

APC has opened in Shoreditch’s fashionable Redchurch Street, which is great news if you love its pared-down schoolgirl aesthetic and don’t mind paying 80 quid for a stripey T-shirt. It’s a bit man repeller, but I like APC because it makes me feel chic and Gallic, and does a nice line in playsuits for the over-30s.

Check that forgiving longer length!

But the Redchurch Street shop is disappointing, stocking a small, slightly half-arsed collection. Unless this is a soft opening and they’re planning on shipping in a ton more stock, it’s not worth travelling out of your way for – the Mayfair branch is way better.

I don’t know what it is about well-known brands that move into Shoreditch, but they don’t seem to make much effort. Take the Nike store that opened to zero fanfare in Bateman’s Row, a tiny side street that attracts precisely no passing trade. Surprise, surprise, nobody came, and now it’s closed down. They clearly wanted to attract a crowd that would rather eat tramp sick than visit the Oxford Circus branch but still, you can be too underground.

I’m guessing these brands want to dip their toes in and have a presence in that trendy Shoreditch, without actually parting with any cash. Hence the new Boxpark concept, due to open as soon as they can flog the retail space this summer in a wasteland next to Shoreditch High Street overground. It’s billed as ‘the world’s first pop-up shopping mall’ and the Standard has already written an unnecessarily sneery piece slating the idea. I disagree – it’s replacing a depressing piece of wasteland, not Xanadu. My objection is only that I can foresee it being a bit crap, housing all those brands that think they’re trendy but aren’t – the G-Stars, Diesels and Superdrys of this world. The Carnaby Street brigade, in other words.

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About me

When I started this blog, there were four of us (including dog) living in a one-bed flat in Shoreditch. Now we've moved to the Sussex Downs. It's an experiment, really - a test to see if we can survive without Pret, the Tube and street lighting. If it fails, we'll be back to London, tails between legs. This is how we're getting along...